Voting in Iraq? Look who is in charge of "protecting" the votes

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC153329.htm

US troops plan to protect voters and votes in Iraq
11 Oct 2005 17:25:14 GMT


Source: Reuters

By Claudia Parsons

NEAR BAQUBA, Iraq, Oct 11 (Reuters) - U.S. troops trying to make Saturday's constitutional referendum in Iraq as safe as possible say it's not just people who have to be protected, but millions of pieces of paper.

"The most important thing that we have to secure on the entire day is going to be ballots, both because of the symbolic value to the enemy and the legitimacy of the election," said Lieutenant Colonel Rich Creed of the U.S. forces.

He works in Diyala province which straddles Iraq's sectarian and ethnic faultlines and could provide an acid test.

On Tuesday, as suicide bombers killed nearly 30 people elsewhere, U.S. commanders in Diyala met Iraqi officials to complete vote preparations in the province around the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Doesn't it seem like we could have someone a little more impartial...

...going around collecting the Iraqis votes? Might add a little credibility to the whole sham.

Don

[LynnTheDem]

2. Only rightwingnut Americans could ever see anything credible about this

BUSH'S PROGRESS; "Iraq Constitution"!

#1. bush will LIE AGAIN this week about his "PROGRESS" in Iraq;

MOST IRAQIS HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN THE CONSTITUTION THEY'RE TO VOTE ON.

Gee what "PROGRESS"!

It's expected to pass, because the VIOLENCE will keep Iraqis away from the voting booths.

Gee what "PROGRESS"!

Iraqis vote on 'invisible' constitution

Insurgency hampers distribution of crucial document as millions prepare to go to the polls this week...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article318225.ece

#2. 2000 Americans dead...for an IRANIAN-STYLE ISLAMIC STATE of repressed women in IRAQ;

"Unmaking Iraq, the Constitutional Process Gone Awry,"

The Iraqi constitution as written will push that country toward full-scale civil war, a report from a nonprofit organization warns. Melissa Block talks with Robert Malley, director of the International Crisis Group's Middle East program.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3703

"It may well be more of a prelude to civil war than a step forward," Anthony H. Cordesman said in an analysis for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Bush administration endorsed Iraq's proposed new constitution yesterday, but analysts warned that some provisions can be interpreted to undermine everything from the distribution of political power to a secular judiciary, from women's rights to fair distribution of oil revenue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082402217_pf.html

There are, however, significant doubts about the religious nature of the new constitution...

"It is written by Islamists for Islamists"

Zainab and her friend Zahra, 37, are both deeply apprehensive about the effect the constitution will have on women's rights. Since "liberation" by US-led forces they have seen the growth in the power of Muslim clerics and the diminishing power of choice.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article318609.ece

The Iraqi constitution's downside for women
http://www.juancole.com/2005/09/iraqi-constitutions-downside-for-women.html

Iraqi Women May Lose Basic Rights Under New Constitution
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0723-06.htm

Iraq's Draft Constitution Is Said to Deepen Divide...will likely trigger civil war...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092601442.html

UN issues warning over Iraq constitution

There are fears that Iraq's draft Constitution, due to go a referendum next week, could trigger the break up of the country and even spark a bloody civil war.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1473209.htm
Americans Die for Sharia (ISLAMIC STATE) in Iraq

It's so Abdul the Iraqi can have six wives. It's so women can be forced to wear the abaya, alcohol can be banned, and sharia law – Muslim religious beliefs as interpreted by a council of mullahs and "grand ayatollahs" – can become the law of the land. As one of the Shi'ite clerics' representatives put it the other day:

"We don't want to see equality between men and women because according to Islamic law, men should have double of women. This is written in the Quran and according to God."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4774

#3. Iraq "constitution"...A Lose-Lose Referendum;

Five days before Saturday's referendum on Iraq's proposed constitution, the U.S. foreign policy elite appears both anxious and gloomy, increasingly worried that win or lose, the process will bring Iraq one step closer to civil war and, with it, the possible destabilisation of the wider region.

"We've looked for the constitution to be a national pact, and the perception now is that it's not," Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, told lawmakers here last week. "Now this constitution has come out, and it didn't come out as a national compact that we thought it was going to be."

Makiya believes the combination of violence and the constitution threatens "the very idea and very possibility of an Iraq".

Barbara Bodine, a veteran diplomat and Middle East expert currently at Harvard University, whose appointment to a senior CPA post after the invasion was blocked by neo-conservatives in the Pentagon, echoed that view.

"The United States has 'Lebanonised' Iraq. It is ironic that a structure that worked so poorly for Lebanon is now the template for Iraq."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1012-03.htm

#4. LUCKY Iraqi women! STONING FOR ADULTERY coming soon!

La Repubblica: "Putting it in a nutshell, there will be no more stoning of adulterous women, is that it?"

Al-Yasari, cleric al Sistani's spokesman:
"Well, it depends. In the case of married women whom eye witnesses can accuse of betraying their husbands, the punishment can only be that. But in any event there will be very few exemplary sentences, and they will always be issued after a fair trial."

Welcome to "liberated" Iraq – that’s what our troops are dying for, and that’s what you’re paying for. It’s medievalism with a "democratic" face.

http://www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/39110

STONING WOMEN! CIVIL WAR! VOTE for a "constitution" you've never read! That's PROGRESS if you're a bushbot idiot!

[zanne]

4. Iraqi women voting today...

They probably don't have a clue that they're voting themselves into enslavement.

[LynnTheDem]

5. No, most Iraqis haven't read it, so they don't know what it says.

They will.

Look at what's happened to Basra; under Hussein it was a university town, kids in jeans, girls & boys hanging out, bars and nightclubs...now you can't find a woman not wearing head-to-toe robes, because the Badr militia patrols the streets beating up any women who don't.

Nightclubs, bars, liquor shops have all been shot up, the owners killed. The Shia militia warn it's death penalty for anyone caught with alcohol.

What a total fucking tragedy.

[zanne]

3. Thank you for posting this.

I knew I had read about this a few days ago. (Under Bushco, it's easy to believe you're seeing things!) If the US is in charge of "protecting" the ballots, the Iraqi people don't stand a chance for self-governance. Can you imagine how insulting it must be when an occupying army is involved in your elections?

[NNN0LHI]

6. Yes regardless of what the outcome is anyone with a lick of sense...

...realizes that the outcome was determined long ago. Some CNN lady just reported that the "vote" could be really close. Yea sure CNN lady.

Don